Lions staff plays key role in identifying picks

Allen Park — Of the seven players the Lions drafted in 2015, only one took a pre-draft visit to team headquarters in Allen Park. Yet, the personnel department vetted each player thoroughly at various parts of the process.

In addition to the scouts and general manager Martin Mayhew, the Lions' assistant coaches played key roles in the decision-making process. Whether it was talking to a player at the Senior Bowl, leading a private workout with him or working with the player in college, a Lions position coach dealt with each of the picks at some point before his selection.

During the evaluation process, Mayhew said the Lions were looking for guys that love football and are dedicated to making it a full-time job. Considering position coaches spend countless hours with each player in their meeting rooms, Mayhew wanted them involved in the assessments.

"They have to work with those guys every single day, so I want them to have guys that they want to have," Mayhew said Saturday. "I tell those guys before the draft, 'Hey, I'm not going to draft a guy you don't want to coach.' So, if we get on the board, we have names on the board and I ask, 'Do you want to coach this guy?' And coaches have said no, and we draft somebody else.

"I think it's important to have a relationship where the coach is as vested in that player as I am and as our scouts are, and he wants that guy to be successful as much as our scouts want the guy to be successful, too."

The Lions drafted four players who attended the 2015 Senior Bowl — first-round guard Laken Tomlinson, second-round running back Ameer Abdullah, fourth-round defensive tackle Gabe Wright and sixth-round cornerback Quandre Diggs. At the annual all-star game, the Lions' contingent meets with most of the players, and it gives the group some details about players in January, months before the draft.

"I talked to (running backs) coach Curtis (Modkins) a lot at the Senior Bowl," Abdullah said. "I respected the way he carried himself, and he respected the way I carried myself. I think that's something that really stuck out to me. I'm glad that he was definitely pulling for me for them to pull the trigger on me, and I'm very thankful for it."

Alex Carter, a cornerback the Lions traded up and drafted in the third round, was the only underclassmen the team selected. His first pre-draft visit was to Allen Park.

Fifth-round pick Michael Burton, a fullback, spent a year playing under Lions tight ends coach Ron Prince, who was Rutgers' offensive coordinator in 2013. Lions offensive line coach Jeremiah Washburn went to South Carolina in April to hold a private workout with seventh-round tackle Corey Robinson.

Though Mayhew called the Senior Bowl "just one step in the process," the Lions obviously hold the game in high regard. In 2013 when Jim Schwartz's staff coached in the game, the Lions drafted three players from the game. Last year in Jim Caldwell's first season, the Lions took four Senior Bowl players.

Many of the Senior Bowl participants met with the Lions again at the combine, and the team stayed in touch with a few of the picks they made this year. Lions cornerbacks coach Tony Oden called Diggs last week to talk, but recalls the cornerback's personality standing out when they talked in Mobile, Alabama.

"He always has a great smile on his face, but he can lock in, lock his jaws and become intense when need be," Oden said. "That's what we want in our room. We have a family atmosphere in our room. We want a group of guys that are prepared and hardworking, but yet they come with a smile on their face and when we want to lock our jaws, we can do that as well."

And as much as the Lions coaches want to learn about the players that could join the team, those pre-draft discussions can help the players feel more comfortable when they find out they're coming to Detroit.

"I have always said that I would like to be around those guys," Diggs said. "They are kind of similar to the staff I had at Texas. Guys that will make you work, but at the same time you're going to have fun and enjoy being around those people."

jkatzenstein@detroitnews.com

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